Although the explosion had temporarily slowed the infected, it did not stop them for long. The two women had carried their wounded companion barely fifty meters before the infected poured through the narrow manhole behind them, surging into the sewer in a mass, desperately searching for their trail, clinging to the three of them like a stubborn strip of dog-skin plaster.
Their wet, gurgling swallowing noises and horrifying shrieks echoed through the damp tunnels.
In the pitch-black sewer, the darkness felt like the gullet of some enormous beast, ready at any moment to swallow the beams cast by Kyoko and Miranda's flashlights.
The two of them dragged their wounded companion through the dim, wet, labyrinthine passages, their progress clumsy and awkward.
On both sides, the mold-ridden concrete walls had lost their outer layers. Beneath them, red brick lay exposed, draped in withered yellow vines. Under the dead leaves, dim emergency lights flickered weakly, casting mottled green shadows that made the deep sewer even more eerie.
This environment terrified Miranda. Unlike Kyoko, who had the nerves of iron, Miranda was trembling badly. Ever since the moth attack, everything had become one desperate brush with death after another. One careless step, and they would be finished.
"Kyoko, what do we do?" Miranda's voice shook with fear. Her hands were locked tightly around Brent's legs while Kyoko led the way. Though she had already discarded the heavy flamethrower, Brent's spare weapons and gear were now hanging from her back. Combined with the strain of the earlier fight and the frantic flight through the tunnels, even with the stimulant still in her system, she was hitting her limit.
"We deal with it as it comes! Are living people really going to be beaten by these damned things?" Kyoko shouted back with fierce confidence. "Miranda, hold onto Brent tight. I need to free up one hand—"
She did not even have time to finish.
The infected were already dangerously close. The stench of rot, blood, and decay rolled over them in waves.
They had just reached a fork in the sewer. Still running, Kyoko suddenly released her grip on the thermal blanket they were using as an improvised stretcher.
With one free hand, she pulled out a spare canister of gel fuel she had been carrying on her belt for the flamethrower.
Still running, she pinned the canister under her arm, twisted the cap off one-handed, then snarled as she hurled it behind them, careful not to hit Miranda in the process.
"Eat this, you filthy bastards!"
After sprinting a little farther, and once the infected had stepped onto the fuel-soaked ground, Kyoko spun around and fired several shots.
The G18C flashed in the dark, lighting up the space behind her in flickering bursts. In that strobing light, Kyoko could clearly see the ruined bodies of the infected, their blue-green flesh stained with blackish blood, their gaping mouths drooling thick, virus-laden saliva. Some of them no longer even had lower jaws.
The sight was revolting.
The bullets struck the fuel spread across the floor. Their heat pushed it instantly to ignition. With a whoosh, flames erupted skyward, forming a wall of fire. The resulting fuel-air blast shook the old, badly corroded tunnel, and part of the passage collapsed under the pressure.
Even the three women at the front were hit by the shockwave. In the cramped tunnel, the explosion compressed the air into a violent burst. Miranda, already unsteady, was nearly thrown off her feet. Chunks of broken stone flew over Kyoko's head.
Then came a thunderous crash. The ceiling gave way, rubble crashing down and sealing the tunnel behind them, cutting the infected off with a wall of debris.
Dust billowed everywhere in the wake of the collapse. Having tricked the infected again, at least for the moment, Kyoko and Miranda hastily turned down another branch and kept running.
"We can slow down a little now. If we keep going this fast, we're going to trip."
Even while saying that, Kyoko still moved with almost superhuman urgency, easing her pace only enough to account for Brent's condition and Miranda's limits.
The collapse had bought them time, but it was no real solution. Eventually they would have to come back out. If the infected simply waited outside for them, like hunters waiting at Huarong Pass, the three exhausted women would be finished.
Slowing slightly, Kyoko glanced at the watch on her wrist. The hands had already sunk into the lower-left quadrant. It was past six.
The sun outside would be setting.
The infected were already dangerous enough during the day. Under full night, with the sky gone black, they would become even more lethal.
"Mm…" Miranda was truly reaching the end. She was not weak, but her training had been for fitness, not survival combat. Without the stimulant, she would already have collapsed and triggered a defeat scene.
Kyoko felt sick at heart as she looked at the team's state.
This outing had been a disaster.
Damn it. She really had underestimated the danger.
All they had intended was a simple scavenging trip, to gather some resources and complete a routine looting objective. She had never expected it to spiral into this.
Even with a suppressor attached, her beloved M4A1 was still loud. Suppressors were not magic. Sustained gunfire was more than enough to draw infected from all directions. Firing in the city was basically ringing the dinner bell for the undead.
And on top of that, she had used explosives far too freely.
Kyoko had no choice but to admit it now. She had looked down on the dangers outside.
Back at home, she had dominated because she held the terrain, the weapons advantage, and the support of friendly companions. She had become the apartment complex's war goddess only because the system had allowed her to buy weapons, ammunition, and supplies in abundance.
That was what had given her the nerve to venture out in spite of special infected and hordes.
She found herself remembering earlier crises—standing alone against a swarm and burning down a residential block, half-dressed and fighting a shadow-like infected after stepping out to tend the fire, facing the sonic infected, the desperate battle before she and Huaxiu finally confessed their feelings, the hunt for the "Monarch"…
Again and again, she had survived only because the system had bailed her out at the critical moment.
For all that Miranda called her "big sister," Kyoko was, if one counted both lives together, only thirty-two. In the end she was still just an eighteen-year-old high school girl—one with a body beyond ordinary humans, yes, and some knowledge of survival and fighting, but still only that.
On her own, she could absolutely defeat many infected one-on-one.
But what about everyone else?
Now that she bore responsibility for the team's survival, she had to start thinking about the actual skill and limits of the others. She had to stop making choices that dragged everyone into danger.
This horde—this entire disaster—was her fault.
She had already pieced it together during the battle.
Why had Brent fired?
The shooting from Brent's position had only started after she and Miranda caused the explosion. Brent had not been reckless. She had drawn fire because Kyoko and Miranda's noise had attracted the infected. Otherwise why would Brent have provoked a horde on purpose?
Silently, Kyoko made a vow to herself.
She would never make this kind of mistake again.
She would protect all of her companions.
Because the sewage water in the channels had frozen solid in the winter cold, no filthy current ran beneath their feet. The channels were sealed with ice.
Even so, the stink rising from the frozen sewage was overwhelming.
Their boots slapped down on grimy, foul ground with every step. Without the rusted railings to one side, they would have been walking directly on the ice.
They kept moving toward home.
After another hundred meters or so, Kyoko began to feel that something was wrong. In enclosed spaces like this, even the smallest sounds became unnaturally clear. Somewhere ahead, she thought she heard something strange.
The air seemed to thicken.
Dark green-black lumps of flesh and severed limbs littered the floor. A putrid reek of rotting meat rushed toward them. The decay here was far worse than the smell coming off the infected horde. Bones were strewn across the passage in total disorder.
Looking closer, Kyoko saw clear gnaw marks on many of them. Some had been bitten cleanly in half by some unknown creature.
The reek clung to them. Their boots striking the floor echoed through the tunnels, each step returning as a distorted, nerve-wracking sound.
"This way. Watch your footing."
Calm again, Kyoko gripped one corner of the blanket with one hand while raising her gun with the other, the G18C's tactical light cutting through the dark ahead.
"Kyoko… you don't think there's some special infected nesting here, do you?" Miranda stared at the scattered bones and half-rotted bodies in terror. This place looked exactly like the lair of some boss-level infected. "Shouldn't we take another route?"
Kyoko shared the same suspicion.
There was no way a slaughterhouse of this scale could be simple.
She did not want to cross through here either. But with the surface filled with infected, how were two women carrying a wounded companion supposed to fight their way across open ground?
The flashlight beam played over the tunnel ahead. Ice crystals on the walls reflected the light. Tiny sewer creatures darted through it now and then.
Then, suddenly, a skull that had already been stripped completely to bone twitched.
"What was that?"
Kyoko did not even answer Miranda. She instantly raised her weapon and aimed at it, already ready to drop Brent and step forward alone if she had to.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 132)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter140)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter95)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter165)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 145
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 135
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 95
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 155
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 125
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 105
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 62
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 80
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 80
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 62
Uma Musume: I Want All 65
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
Summoning an Evil God, but the 41
Supernatural Multiverse 45
My Harem Is Indescribable 35
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 46
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 26
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 36
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